Good Consumption in the Perspective of Thomistic Personalism

A large number of scholars and people of good will endeavour to reduce the scope and threat of the problems of environmental degradation and overconsumption. The aim of this paper is to complement these efforts with a theological and personalist (Thomistic) viewpoint. This perspective offers an important normative framework to explain why we need a concept of good consumptionConsumption and how to put in in practice. The logic of good consumptionConsumption advanced in this paper is based on some key ideas of Thomas AquinasAquinas, Thomas regarding the good and its different categories. It also touches on another important topic of the Thomistic literature, namely virtuesVirtue, understood here as intrinsic inclinations of persons. Building on the concepts of the good and virtuesVirtue, a vision of consumptionConsumption that is good, moderate, just, magnanimous and prudent and therefore environment-friendly and sustainable is suggested. It is understood here that preservation of our world requires a moral effort and moral orderMoral Order.